Ukraine’s political crisis deepened over the weekend as President Viktor Yanukovych’s offer to share power with the opposition failed to end anti-government unrest, raising the stakes for a special parliament session tomorrow.
Arseniy Yatsenyuk, Vitali Klitschko and Oleh Tyahnybok on Jan. 25 urged demonstrators to keep pushing for Yanukovych’s resignation and snap elections after the president offered to hand over top cabinet jobs. Lawmakers will interrupt their winter break to vote on a no-confidence motion in the government and a bid to repeal anti-protest laws passed this month.
The country of 45 million, a key route for Russian energy toward Europe, is enduring the first deadly political crisis in its 22 years of independence. Yanukovych, struggling to tame demonstrations claimed the first lives last week as anti-protest laws triggered riots, offered his biggest concessions yet on Jan. 25. Clashes in Kiev resumed that night, while attempts to seize regional government offices widened.
We shouldn’t confuse this ominous crisis in the Ukraine with similar looking ones that have erupted in the Arab world in the last three years. The Ukraine isn’t Egypt, or Syria, or Libya, etc. Not least because of the heavy hand of Ukraine’s big bully of a neighbor, Russia.
The poor Ukrainian people have suffered greatly in the last century, not least because of Lenin and Stalin, who starved millions of Ukraineians to death in the 1920s and 1930s. The economic potential of this large and proud nation is vast, if the country can only get the kind of wise and capable leadership it so desperately needs. I have a particular fondness for the Ukrainian Catholic Church, the largest and most important of the eastern rite churches in uion with Rome. To me, it is the natural bridge church between East and West. Persecuted both by the Communists and by the eastern Orthodox, the Ukrainian Catholics have a special vocation to fulfill in the universal church. May the Good Shepherd protect and provide for his flock, his defenseless sheep, in the Ukraine.
Does anyone else remember and think of the obscure line in Col. 3:11 when reading stories like this about the Ukraine? In talking about how there is niether Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, etc. in Christ, the writer of Colossians also alludes to a notoriously savage and barbarian group called the “Scythians” as the opposite of the sophisticated, culturally enlightened Greeks. The point is that while the reference is vague, most scholars think that the infamous Viking-like Scythians, who came from the region north of the Black Sea, are associated with the ancestors of the Ukrainians.
David Handy+
Yes, we should pray that the Lord turns this to the advantage of his Church and his Kingdom.
In general terms, the western side of the country tends to be more western oriented, and the eastern side more Russia-oriented. Its therefore all the more interesting that this latest issue appears to cut across that divide. Even russophiles in the east of the country aren’t keen on dumping an EU trade agreement in exchange for the doubtful joys of closer economic ties with Russia.
Thanks for backing me up, MichaelA. It’s always nice to find areas of common ground between us (in fact, there are many of them).
It’s heartening to see that, over the last few days, the president is starting to back down about smashing the public protests (as Putin would do). I agree with you, MichaelA, especially about the need for urgent and persistent prayer for this strategically important nation. With some 45 million people, the Ukraine is one of the largest countries in Europe.
Here is the ranking:
1. Russia, with 144 million, the 9th largest nation in the world.
2. Germany, with about 80 mil, the 16th largest in the world.
3. France, with almost 66 million, the 21st largest in the world.
4. The UK, with some 64 million, the 22nd largest.
5. Italy, with about 60 mil, the 23rd largest nation.
6. Spain, with around 47 million, the 28th largest country.
7. Ukraine, with about 45 million, the 29th largest in the world.
Thus, the Ukraine dwarfs even medium size European nations like Poland, and is far larger than Hungary, much less such small countries (in terms of population) as the Scandanavian countries, or the Czech Republic, etc. What happens to the Ukraine is of vital importance, not only to Europe, but to the whole world, including the Christian world.
One of my alltime favorite Christian leaders of the 20th century was the late, great cardinal who led the Ukrainian Catholic Church for over 30 years, the brilliant, courageous Yosef Slipyi, who spent many years in a Soviet prison camp and yet never betrayed his Master. May the Lord raise up his like in our time!
David Handy+